


Meet Me in the Aftermath

by Erica_T



Series: Aftermath [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 11:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erica_T/pseuds/Erica_T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it's all over, Steve goes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Me in the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merideath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merideath/gifts).



> For Merideath specifically, because of her wonderful comment on Little Spoons, I have incorporated some of that headcanon into this fic.  
> Also for all of those people over on tumblr that I’ve seen crying out for Secret! Steve/Darcy fic in the wake of the release of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier trailer. 
> 
> Title is taken from a song on Lifehouse’s newest album Almeria called ‘Aftermath’. Every time I listen to it, I get Steve/Darcy feels. There may be a future song fic. 
> 
> Note: I have not actually seen the trailer for Captain America: TWS yet. Just all the graphics and gifs that have been exploding all over my tumblr dashboard

When it was all over, he said a quiet goodbye to Natasha and went home, avoiding another of her attempts to set him up with some other ‘nice’ girl from the office.  
He let himself into the darkened apartment, wondering for a moment if it was empty. He wouldn’t blame her if she’d gone to the Tower while he was away. But then, he tripped over her shoes in the entryway. 

So. Not empty then. 

Forgoing lights in favour of just getting to bed as quickly as possible, he made his way through the apartment to the bedroom, a small pang of guilt when he passed the table still set for two in his dining room. It had occurred, somewhere in the back of his mind, that they’d been planning on celebrating that evening, or maybe it was yesterday evening, he wasn’t even sure what day it was anymore.

There hadn’t been time to do much more than get a text off to her that thrilling heroics were going down before all hell broke loose. She’d only sent back a brief message that she’d see him when he got home. 

He didn’t even know how long ago that had been. 

The lights were off in the bedroom, unsurprising, as he finally looked at a clock and realized it was past one in the morning. She would have to be up early in order to make it into work in time, travelling all the way from Brooklyn. She’d grumbled about that the first couple of weeks, but she’d gotten used to it. 

He probably should leave her to sleep in peace, take up residence in the spare room for  
the night and talk to her tomorrow when his head was in a better space. 

But she looked so inviting in the dim glow of the clock and the moon trickling in through the window. She was sleeping on his side of the bed, she usually did when he was gone, though he’d never actually seen her do it. 

Stripping down to a t-shirt and his boxers, he rounded to her side of the bed and slid into it behind her, scooting close and curling himself around her back. 

Most of the time, she was the one who slept like this, she would fit herself to his back like a second skin, their height difference just enough that her knees folded into his perfectly, and her forehead reached the back of his neck. She would wrap her slender arm around him and hold firmly through the night, grounding him. It always made him feel at ease, with her at his back. 

Every once in a while though, when he was feeling unsettled in the aftermath of a difficult mission, where things hadn’t gone according to plan, or had gone disastrously wrong, they would trade places. He would wrap himself around her then, because on a level that he didn’t recognize, but somehow she did, he needed to feel like he could still protect someone, if nothing else in the world. Even Captain America couldn’t save all of the people all of the time, but Steve Rogers? Steve Rogers would always save Darcy Lewis. 

He felt her stir, and snuggle back closer to him, slim fingers tangling with his.

“Steve?” She murmured. 

“Hey doll. Sorry to wake you.” 

“S’okay. Glad you’re home. Are you okay?” 

“M’fine.” 

“I heard things were kind of a clusterfuck out there.” 

“Yeah…kind of. We got the Winter Soldier.”

“That’s good.” 

“It’s Bucky.” 

She gasped and tried to turn, but he soothed her with a kiss to the back of her neck.

“It’s okay.”

“Oh my god, Steve, it’s not okay; he was your best friend.” 

He nodded against her shoulder.

“And he will be again. It’ll be a while, but he’s alive and I’ll get him back.”

She nodded and squeezed his hand. 

“Are –you- okay?” He asked her, and shifted their joined hands lower over her belly. She shifted slightly against him to press a kiss his head.

“’We’ are fine. Doc says all systems are normal for approximately nine weeks in.” 

He smiled and kissed her shoulder. 

“That’s good.” 

“There’s a sonogram pinned to the fridge.” 

The breath left his body, and he fought the urge to get up to go and look. It would be there in the morning, she was here right now. 

“Really?” 

“Mhmm. I know you wanted to be there. It was the least I could do.” 

He sighed against her, thinking of all the missed dates, all the missed moments in their past and still to come. What kind of a life was this for a girl like her? She was so vibrant, so full of life…he would hate to see her lose any of that because she made the decision to be a part his life and all that it entailed. 

“M’sorry.” He whispered against her skin, and her hand tightened against his. 

“Don’t.” Her voice was sharp in the darkness. “Don’t ever apologize for being who you are. You know that I wouldn’t trade this life for anything in the world, and I’m never going to.” 

“I just wish sometimes that we could have normal, even if only for a little while.” 

“We do. This is our normal, Steve. You and me in the dark, keeping each other safe, that’s our normal. This,” she pressed their hands firmly to her belly again, “is our normal. And if it got any more normal than this, we’d go stir crazy.” 

“I guess you’re right.” 

She huffed.

“You guess. You know I’m right, I always am.” 

Steve chuckled.

“How long d’you think before you start showing?” 

She shrugged.

“I dunno. Depends I guess on how big your super spawn decides it wants to get before making a grand exit. I’ll probably start looking ‘is she or isn’t she’ fat at four or five months. Why?” 

“Just trying to figure out how long we have before we have to start telling people about us.” 

She giggled.

“Is Natasha still trying to set you up with girls from the office?” 

“Yup. I know she means well, but…”

“None of them can hold a candle to me.” 

“You got it, doll” 

“Can I just say; it’s totally weird that the Black Widow is taking a personal interest in your sex life?” 

“I know, right? It’s freaking me out a little too.” 

She giggled some more, then grew quiet. After a while, when he’d thought maybe she’d fallen asleep again, she spoke quietly. 

“What if we didn’t wait until we can’t hide it anymore?” 

He breathed out slowly. When they had first started seeing each other, way back when he had no idea how to navigate this brave new world, let alone human relationships in it, and she was the low man on the SHIELD totem pole and didn’t want people to think she was getting special favours, she had been the one to call ‘private’ on their relationship. No one could know, not SHIELD, not the media, not even their closest friends. That had been fine by him. That meant staying in, rather than going out, something he was still not all that comfortable with. She was safer, out of the public eye, no one could use her to influence him, or vice versa. And it meant that this was just for them, something that they had that no one else could touch. 

Now…now there was more than just the two of them to consider, and maybe anonymity was safe, but maybe it was safer still that someone else knew, someone who could protect her when he wasn’t there.

“Yeah?” 

“Well, I did say yes. It would be a shame not to wear this gorgeous ring.” She wiggled her fingers and he could feel the warm, smooth metal against his hand. “And…well, I’ll have to file all these change forms at some point, and you can bet that some nosy admin person is going to notice that my address matches yours. If not that, they’ll notice when we file each other as next of kin, beneficiaries and emergency contacts. And let’s not forget, eventually we’ll be filing changes of marital statuses.” 

“Are you ready for that?” 

“Am I ready for the world to know that I am marrying Captain America and carrying his baby? Not really. But I am ready for our friends and coworkers to know how much in love with Steve Rogers I am.” 

“Okay.” 

“We’ll tell Nat first, so she stops trying to set you up with half the office.”  
He laughed, and he felt her turn her head again, pressing a smiling kiss to his head. He shifted to kiss her properly. 

“I love you.” He murmured against her lips, feeling her smile. 

“I love you too.” 

They settled again, he tucked her against his chest and rested his chin on top of her head, curling his arm against her. She tangled her legs with his, and dropped back to sleep. Steve followed more slowly, thinking about this normal that they’d found together. It was more than he may have ever dreamed he could have, and, like she said, he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. 

And who knew, maybe by the time they got around to a ceremony, he could have his best friend as his best man.


End file.
